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102 PROBLEMS CONFRONTING RUSSIA
of forcible expropriation to which it has taken refuge as
a means of baiting the masses. It will prove thereby its
inconsistency and insincerity.
Under the influence of Bolshevist theories manual work
has struck, but the dearth of labour cannot affect any
recognised economic principle, the only result being, as we
have already shown, a change of hands. The present
masters of the situation in Russia, the labourers, factory
hands, shop assistants, waiters, and domestic servants, have
secured for themselves exorbitant wages, and are thereby
able to impose on everybody not belonging to the proletariat
the most exacting conditions in payment for their work.
The result was that some of the educated classes naturally
began to undertake manual labour in order to profit by the
fabulous pay exacted. For instance, army officers, whose
pay is very low, became railway porters at the Nicolay
railway station at Petrograd, and in that capacity earned
a much better living than before. This proves that the
inflated artificial prices ruling the labour market by special
decrees of the Bolsheviks induce the educated classes to
take the place of the former manual labourers, and, in
consequence, become their formidable opponents, while it
is impossible for manual labourers to engage in occupations
for which mental training is required. The increased supply
to the labour market and the increased demand for
brain-workers will necessarily lower the prices for labour and
raise the prices for brain-work. Thus the wages paid for
labour in Russia, at present far exceeding the reasonable
requirements of the working classes, will soon be brought
to an economic reductio ad absurdum. On the other hand,
the utter impossibility of making industrial production pay
its way under the burden of wages disproportionate to the
gain obtained from such production, must bring the economic
life of the country to a standstill. This indeed has been
the case in Russia, where the socialistic outrage of the national
conditions under which the economic life of a country can
be carried on has brought about destruction and ruin. A
practical proof of the unsoundness of handling such economic
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